“Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn”
― The Dream Songs
Hall Arts Plaza, Dallas, Texas
I have never completely recovered from the time when I realized that the cotton in the aspirin bottle was not necessary and you did not have to replace it after you extracted your tablet – a belief that, as a child, I structured my entire world around.
It is said that ‘change’ is the only real constant. It may very well be fact, but then again, even facts change and that may be the fact that governs us all.
—- James Surls, artist statement
Standing Vase With Flowers, James Surls, 2010 Colorado, Bronze and Stainless Steel
Poydras Street, New Orleans
In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.
Walking down Poydras, I spotted another sculpture along the street and immediately knew I had seen this sculptor’s work before.
It was Standing Vase With Flowers by James Surls… and I had seen his work at the Irving Arts Center Sculpture Garden and at the Frisco Sculpture Center.
It gave me a comfortable, warm feeling to see work from an artist I was familiar with – echoes of shapes from a long way away and a long time ago.
James Surls, Again in the Meadows, plus a construction crane, a pile of dirt, and a stop sign
James Surls, Star Flower
reflection
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Star Flower
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Star Flower
inverted reflection
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Star Flower
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Again in the Meadows
James Surls, Star Flower, Irving Arts Center Sculpture Garden, Irving, Texas
James Surls, Star Flower
reflection
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Star Flower
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Star Flower
(click to enlarge)
James Surls, Star Flower
inverted reflection
(click to enlarge)
Texas Sculpture Garden,
Frisco, Texas
James Surls
American (Colorado/Texas)
Again in the Meadows
2002
“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”
― William Shakespeare
Photographs manipulated with Corel Painter and The Gimp.
James Surls, Again in the Meadows
“I believe that the justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”
― Glenn Gould
James Surls, Again in the Meadows, plus a construction crane, a pile of dirt, and a stop sign
The whole difference between a construction and a creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.
—- G. K. Chesterton
Bill Chance 